Cycling x Solidarity was born as an initiative of friends during the pandemic who carried out rides to supply and clean the ‘love refrigerators’, refrigerators with free food for the homeless population in Chicago. With the arrival of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in the city last year, their focus expanded to conducting cycling routes in which they purchase all of the products offered at street stalls to allow their owners to go home with the day’s earnings and avoid being left in a vulnerable position for arrest.
The food, acquired through donations, is then distributed to homeless people or placed in community freezers. In some cases, the ‘buyouts’ (massive purchases) are made directly at the sellers’ homes, since many fear going out to work and being captured in immigration raids.
The project has been replicated in other cities at different scales, as part of a citizen network that has resorted to support among neighbors to face the onslaught of Donald Trump’s policies. For Rick Rosales, promoter of Cycling x Solidarity, these efforts are a sign of “communities coming together and supporting each other” and he hopes they extend beyond the Republican president’s term.
